A conventional flat cable includes a plurality of parallelly arranged insulated conductors, and is used in various kinds of electrical appliances, electronic apparatus, computers, and communication apparatus to transmit signals. While the conventional flat cable works well when being used between two fixed connecting elements, it could not be satisfactorily used with pivoting mechanisms.
However, pivoting mechanisms are often employed in many currently available electronic apparatus and communication apparatus. For example, the currently widely accepted mobile phones usually include a cover or a screen connected to a main unit of the mobile phone via a pivoting mechanism. At present, a miniaturized flat cable or a cluster of very fine conductors is used as a signal transmission cable to transmit electric signals from the main unit to the screen of the mobile phone.
While the miniaturized flat cable and the cluster of very fine conductors may be used as an alternative for transmitting signals via the mobile phone, they do not permit the hinge assemblies for the flat cable or the cluster of fine conductors to be reduced in size. In other words, the large-size hinge assemblies would form a limit in designing the main unit of the mobile phone. On the other hand, more and more mobile phones or notebook computers are designed to transmit signals via hinge assemblies, the sizes of the hinge assemblies become smaller and smaller, and the pivoting mechanisms have developed from a simple one-dimensional structure to a two-dimensional structure. And, the conventional flat cable no longer meets these requirements. When the conventional flat cable is used with the existing size-reduced pivoting mechanism, it would adversely affect the operation of the pivoting mechanism. The conductors included in the flat cable tend to twist or tangle with one another during the operation of the pivoting mechanism. In a worse condition, some of the conductors in the flat cable would become damaged.
It is therefore necessary to develop a signal transmission flat cable that could be satisfactorily used in electronic apparatus and communication equipment having pivoting mechanisms provided therein.